It’s looking more and more likely that 2010 will be the year of the tablet. Add Microsoft to the list of tech giants rumored to be developing a touchscreen tablet, along with two touchscreen phones to compete with the iPhone.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley claims receiving tips that Microsoft is developing a touchscreen tablet featuring technologies used in its Surface touchscreen table. She tacks on a rumor about Pink, a “Microsoft-branded (but not Microsoft-manufactured) phone,” with a January 2010 launch date. No indications when, exactly, a Microsoft Surface-powered tablet would emerge. Perhaps next year as well?

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft is waiting for Apple to show its tablet hand before trotting out its revamped tablet,” Jo Foley writes.

ZDNet’s details on the devices are scarce, but more interesting is the mounting evidence suggesting tablets will be a buzzing product category next year. In August, Wired.com received tips that Dell and Intel are collaborating on a touchscreen tablet due for release next year. Also, an analyst told Wired.com he’s heard Nokia and HTC are working on tablets as well. And of course, there has been a plethora of reports citing sources who claim Apple will deliver a touchscreen tablet in 2010.

On top of these hints, market research firm Display Search now projects the touchscreen market will triple in the next few years, from $3.6 billion to $9 billion. The iPhone played a significant role in driving touchscreen technology into the mainstream, analysts told Wired.com.

Of course, just because tablets are likely to be trendy among manufacturers in 2010 doesn’t mean they’ll be hot sellers. We’ll have to wait a little longer to learn more about how these new tablets will differ from the scores that have come and gone in years past.

See Also:

• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• Rumor: $800 Apple Tablet Coming in October
• Analyst Predicts Apple Will Unleash Touchscreen Tablet Next Year …
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• Analyst Claims to Have Seen Apple Tablet

Photo of the Microsoft Surface, whose technology is rumored to appear in a tablet next year: Marilink/Flickr

Let’s be frank: We all know Apple’s hosting a September event, as it has for the past several years. But this year’s keynote is shaping up to be a bit more interesting than usual, thanks to the frenzy of iPod, iTunes and tablet rumors. Plus, of course, the return of Steve Jobs.

True to form, Apple hasn’t confirmed a thing — not even the existence of an event on Sept. 9 — leaving us to assess the rumors based on the best evidence we can find.

Of all the predictions, which are likely to come true? Let’s take a hard look at everything you can realistically expect from this event, which will reportedly take place Sept. 9 at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center.

New iPods With Cameras, Microphones

Apple’s September events have traditionally revolved around iPods and iTunes, so it’s obvious this will be the theme of the event. But what, exactly, about the iPod? There’s a pile of evidence suggesting Apple will release new iPod Touch and iPod Nanos with cameras.

Wired.com in July received an inside tip from a well-connected source claiming Apple would soon add a camera and a microphone to the iPod Touch, which would bring it closer in line with the iPhone. Additionally, several other publications reported similar rumors about the Touch and the Nano getting cameras. And the latest iPod-related rumor comes from Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, which claims that not only will the Nano and Touch receive cameras, the iPod Classic will, too.

We’re confident the Nano and Touch will be upgraded with cameras (and, of course, increased storage). Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney had us convinced when he published a gallery of third-party Touch and Nano cases, which feature holes presumably meant for cameras. (See photo above)

However, we’re doubting the iPod Classic will gain a camera. It’s unlikely Apple would want to invest much more in this product, because its sales have shrunk considerably, thanks to the success of the iPhone. Last quarter, the iPod accounted for 18 percent of Apple’s overall revenue, compared to 55.5 percent in 2006. Also, the iPod Classic is the only hard-drive-based iPod remaining in the iPod family, and flash-memory prices are plummeting. Would a camera really boost this device’s appeal and make it worth the investment? We don’t think so.

One more thing: Because the iPod Touch is basically a phoneless iPhone that many use as a gaming device, the next logical step would be for the iPod Touch to get a performance boost to bring it up to speed with the new iPhone 3GS. We’re so confident in this prediction that we’re willing to bet a Chevy Chevelle on it.

iTunes 9

The current version of iTunes, iTunes 8, is nearing its one-year anniversary, and an update to version 9 is likely. The Boy Genius Report published a rumor report claiming iTunes 9 would sport new visual organization features to arrange iPhone apps. The blog also received screenshots (see right) purporting to reveal iTunes 9 would feature Facebook integration to share playlists with friends using the social-networking site.

A visual-organization tool would definitely make sense — it would mimic the ability to move around the iPhone’s icons on its springboard. We find Facebook integration probable as well. The latest versions of QuickTime, iPhoto and iMovie each have features that enable sharing media with social networks (i.e., YouTube and Flickr). And in general, an automatic playlist creator integrated in Facebook just sounds like a pretty clever idea.

More foggy is a rumor reported by Financial Times that Apple is working with four major record labels to boost music sales by reinventing digital album art. The collaborative effort is codenamed Project Cocktail, and the idea is to entice music fans with a compelling digital package that will get them to gather around notebooks to listen to music together. How exactly would album art do that? It’s unclear. However, Financial Times is a credible publication with solid music sources. Expect this part of the keynote to deliver the biggest surprise.

No Apple Tablet

Though the release of an Apple touchscreen tablet now seems inevitable, it’s unlikely this will be announced in September. Some publications cite anonymous sources saying an Apple tablet will be announced this fall, while others claim it will launch early 2010. We’re betting early 2010 is more realistic.

That’s because Apple is no longer participating in the Macworld Expo trade show to launch new products, and the company would be wise to save its biggest news to compete with other companies announcing new products at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Why fire all the ammo in September?

Apple’s rumored tablet, which has been described by tipsters as a larger-screen iPod, is shaping up to be the most anticipated gadget since the iPhone. It could make 2010 a very exciting year. We’ve speculated it will be the “year of the tablet,” citing sources claiming Dell, Intel, HTC and other tech companies are preparing tablets to compete with Apple.

The Return of Steve Jobs

We all miss Steve Jobs, even though his employees might not. Nobody can deliver a keynote quite like ol’ Steve. CNBC’s Jim Goldman said on Twitter that Jobs is “very likely” to appear at the Apple event. That’s good news, and if true, his return would make this a very momentous event.

Excited? We are, too, and we’ll keep you plugged in. Keep reading Gadget Lab, or follow @gadgetlab and @bxchen for updates on the upcoming event.

See Also:

• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• Rumor: 10-Inch Apple Tablet Landing in Early 2010
• Jobs Back on the Job
• Apple Preparing iPod Touch With Camera, Microphone: Source …
• Rumor: iPods Nano and Touch to Gain Cameras
• Analytics Give Clues to Next-Gen iPod Touch
• Cameras in iPods. Game Over?

Images, top to bottom: Manzana/Flickr, Cult of Mac, The Boy Genius Report, Gadgets Guy/Flickr, Jon Snyder/Wired.com

After Gizmodo’s Brian Lam posted the most eye-opening inside tip yet about Apple’s rumored tablet, DaringFireball’s John Gruber poopooed on Lam’s source because of one detail — the ship date.

I’m almost certain there’s no tablet coming this year. It’s a 2010 thing.

Based on his own piece of hearsay that the ship date is 2010 rather than this fall, Gruber continues to strip Lam’s source of credibility, pointing out the tipster doesn’t know which operating system the tablet runs.

Talk about a trivial pissing contest. If you’ve been following the Apple rumor game for some time, you’ll notice that often times “insiders” only provide selective pieces of information so they can’t be traced. We’re sure Lam’s source has a solid reason to withhold information about the OS.

As for ship date, it’s pretty common for tipsters to get those wrong. That’s also understandable, because an official ship date is among the final decisions for a company to make about a product, and it’s also easy to change. Lam’s source also makes it clear a fall release is just an educated guess.

We can speak from first-hand experience about tipsters being off on ship dates. In December, an Apple employee told Wired.com that a new Mac Mini would be announced at January 2009’s Macworld Expo conference. That announcement didn’t happen at Macworld, but Apple did indeed release a Mac Mini in March — a mere two months later.

Here at Wired.com we’re placing our bets on an early 2010 launch of an Apple tablet, timed to coincide with the Consumer Electronics Show in January, to steal thunder from other companies making their announcements that month. But really, who cares about when? It’s not like we already have Apple tablets and we’re eager to know when we can upgrade to the next Apple tablet. We’re discussing a brand new product here, so the “When?” hardly even matters, especially if we’re talking about a difference of a few months.

It’s the “What?” that we all really care about. As in, what will this rumored tablet do? We call Lam’s rumor report the most eye-opening because it’s been the only one to provide information on the device’s potential purpose — particularly, that one version of the tablet will be designed for education use (our guess: a book reader to compete with Amazon), and the other for “webcam” (perhaps video conferencing). Now that’s interesting.

See Also:

• Financial Times Confirms Apple Tablet for September
• Rumor: Apple Tablet Will Feature OLED Screen
• Rumored Apple Tablet Will Sell 2 Million Units in 2010, Analyst …
• Analyst Predicts Apple Will Unleash Touchscreen Tablet Next Year …
• Rumor: $800 Apple Tablet Coming in October
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• Rumor: 10-Inch Apple Tablet Landing in Early 2010
• Analyst Claims to Have Seen Apple Tablet
• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• Dear Tablet Naysayers: Stop Looking Back When We’re Thinking Ahead …

Photo: Gadgets Guy/Flickr

Another analyst is stepping up to bat with his predictions on the rumored touchscreen tablet from Apple. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research claims hearing the tablet will sport an 8- to 10-inch OLED screen and an ARM Holdings dual-core Core9x chipset. He believes the device will cost $900 and ship first quarter of 2010.

That differs a bit from past rumor reports where anonymous sources have told other publications that the rumored tablet would cost between $500 to $700 with subsidy from a carrier and ship as soon as fall of this year. (For our collection of earlier rumor reports, see the links below.) Particularly interesting is the idea of an OLED screen. Is it necessary? It would add to the product’s overall cost, but one could imagine it would help distinguish this rumored device from Apple’s iPod Touch.

Take this rumor with a grain of salt, like any Apple prediction provided by an analyst. (MacRumors’ Arnold Kim wrote an insightful post about analysts and rumor “research” back in 2007; it’s worth checking out.) Chowdhry, like many analysts, has often missed with his guesses. For instance, he predicted that by January 2009, Apple would sell iPhones for $150 at Costco. Stee-rike!

Still, nobody beats Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster when it comes to making ballsy, borderline crazy Apple predictions. Last week, Munster even made an estimate that this unconfirmed device would sell 2 million units, generating $1.2 billion in revenue. Getting a bit of a head start, isn’t he?

Check out the article “Apple to Offer $899 Tablet With OLED Screen?” from Barron’s.

See Also:

• Financial Times Confirms Apple Tablet for September
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• Rumored Apple Tablet Will Sell 2 Million Units in 2010, Analyst …
• Analyst Predicts Apple Will Unleash Touchscreen Tablet Next Year …
• Rumor: $800 Apple Tablet Coming in October
• Rumor: 10-Inch Apple Tablet Landing in Early 2010
• Analyst Claims to Have Seen Apple Tablet

Illustration of an imaginary iPhone tablet: Factoryjoe / Flickr

Readers have been asking about the promised EeePC T91, an innovative convertible tablet netbook that Asus showed off in January at CES. Since then there’s been no word from Asus about the availability of what promised to be like a cool, low-cost portable with a touch-sensitive screen.

Now there’s a report that the T91 will be available within a month, in the U.K. at least. Reports are that it will cost £449, or in American, about $667. That’s a lot of money for an Atom-based netbook, even if it does have a swiveling touchscreen, a TV tuner and integrated GPS. On the other hand: Want!

Via Gizmodo, Mirror.co.uk and Electricpig

Photo credit: Dylan Tweney/Wired.com